Slade’s brain clicks with Tuilagi’s beef
Rugby selection is a question of balance. So often we debate the merits or otherwise of various players without contextualising the fit.
Coaches do not pick their best 23 and then work out their game plan. They plot the way they want to play and select accordingly. That is the theory anyway. Good selectors get the balance right, the not-so-good ones don’t. Their teams lose as a result.
For years there has been much debate within French rugby circles, centred on the debilitating effect of their vast overseas contingent. It is regularly cited as the reason for French international failures for the best part of a decade. At best it is an excuse, at worst a wilful blindness to the reality that France cannot find a French coach to pick a properly adjusted team. France are lopsided. Lopsided and big, very big.
That has been pretty much their modus operandi throughout the decade. Balance has been replaced by bombast. England head coach Eddie Jones is another rugby thinker attracted to size, the beauty of bulk. Before this Six Nations, the possibility of a super-sized England centre partnership between Ben Te’o and Manu Tuilagi was being bandied about. For a man whose coaching at test level has centred on an undersized Australia pack and Japan, size and Samoans have some appeal for Jones.
But another injury to Te’o took temptation away and left Jones with what appears a beautifully balanced centre partnership of Tuilagi and Henry Slade. The allure of nothing but thunder being used to cross the gainline has been balanced with the lightning incision that is Slade’s footballing brain, his fast hands and his lovely left foot.
The Leicester Tiger, Tuilagi, on the inside draws defences and gives the Exeter Chief, Slade, the extra split-second that his early career as a first-five or inside centre suggested he required. Long levered, he sees as rapidly as any No 10 but does not execute as quickly as Owen Farrell or George Ford. Wider out, with the space created by the ferocity of Tuilagi’s running, Slade is England’s second playmaker, bringing the back three into the game, and keeping the opposition in the parts of the field where Jones wants them to be penned.
Farrell, Tuilagi and Te’o would have guaranteed gainline presence, but the centre partnership against Ireland in Dublin last Sunday hinted at something that delivers so much more.
The biggest question of balance for England’s match against France at Twickenham tomorrow is to be found in the second row. The pairing for last week’s game in Dublin, the two Saracens, was a blend of set-piece strength and wired energy. George Kruis adds steel to a set piece, while Maro Itoje is a force of nature around the field. The enforced absence through injury of Itoje leaves Jones with more of a quandary than many suggest. Joe Launchbury, back to full fitness, is regarded as the natural replacement for Itoje, with Kruis the continuing starter. I think that Courtney Lawes was so destructive in the tackle and turnover when he came on against Ireland that he merits being the first pick at lock. When he is at his best, as he was for nearly 20 minutes in Dublin and much of the British & Irish Lions tour, he is a tremendous player, but perhaps the absence of Itoje demands a more stable selection.
I rate Launchbury and Lawes as the best balance in Itoje’s absence. This call is a tough one, one that England probably won’t lose out on, but one where it is not a case of opting for the next-best locks but the pairing that England feel combines best. France would have stuck the three of them on the scales and named the heaviest two to start the game.
The back row is another fascinating area of selection and perhaps the one where France understand the requirements. Both No 8s, Louis Picamoles and Billy Vunipola, are precious at the base of the scrum. Vunipola is not afraid to graft but it is in the interests of the team to free him for his attacking role. Picamoles does not see the need to get his knees dirty when there are less talented players to do it for him. Wenceslas Lauret is every bit as useful to France, if not more so, because of the work rate that compensates for the brilliant, bristling prima donna that is Picamoles.
Jones likes his blindside flanker to be a workhorse. Mark Wilson is that and more besides. Chris Robshaw is the epitome of a Dobbin and Brad Shields is not far behind. Wilson follows in the tradition of the ‘‘unseen heroes’’ hoovering up the mess that the galvanising No 8 should be leaving to others. The same applies at No 7, where defensive duties are a priority at the breakdown. Tom Curry is not quite Sam Underhill, but he was excellent last week.
Ireland, with their conservative pick-and-drive game, were undone because C J Stander, Josh van der Flier and Peter O’Mahony lacked carrying ballast. Once England nullified their micro-rugby, risk-averse style there was no option, Sean O’Brien arrived too late to ask them a more robust, physical set of questions. In contrast, England look as if they have the balance to bring a variety of games to the pitch. Expect this carefully considered team to take a second step towards the title and, perhaps, so much more.
THE TIMES, LONDON